What Is 'Selfitis' And When Does Taking Selfies Become A Real Problem?

Recording artist Miley Cyrus, seen here taking a selfie with actor Jamie Foxx (L), posts more selfies on Twitter than any other celebrity, according to a September 2013 EBay Deals infographic and an article in Mashable. (Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images)

Oh look, that's a selfie of you next to a boat. And isn't that a photo of yourself besides a statue. And then there's you with a trash can. And then alongside a plate of baked beans. OK, now you are posing with Miley Cyrus. Then one with a random stranger. Then with an anchor. With a mechanical dog. Yes, yes, we know what you look like.

Today's digital cameras and smartphones have made it easier and easier to take a photograph of yourself or yourselfie (otherwise known as a selfie) and social media allows you to readily share these selfies with literally everyone. While taking selfies has become commonplace, we all know at least one person who seems to take and share far too many selfies, even to the point where it gets annoying. If you don't know someone like that, then that person may be you.

But how many selfies is too many? Three selfies a day? Four? Six thousand two hundred and seventy-two? Back in March 2014, an article on the Adobo Chronicles website claimed that the American Psychiatric Association (APA) had established "selfitis" as a new mental disorder: "the obsessive compulsive desire to take photos of one’s self and post them on social media as a way to make up for the lack of self-esteem and to fill a gap in intimacy." The article also indicated that the APA had established three levels of selfitis:

Borderline selfitis: "taking photos of one’s self at least three times a day but not posting them on social media"

Acute selfitis: "taking photos of one’s self at least three times a day and posting each of the photos on social media"

Chronic selfitis: "uncontrollable urge to take photos of one’s self round the clock and posting the photos on social media more than six times a day"

But alas, all of this turned out to be a hoax, a fake news story.

However, recently Janarthanan Balakrishnan of the Thiagarajar School of Management in Madura, India and Mark D. Griffiths of Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, UK, have inserted "themselfies" into the discussion by publishing a study in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. The researchers developed a Selfitis Behavior Scale (SBS) and tried to determine whether their SBS could classify people into the aforementioned three different levels of selfitis.

Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto poses for a selfie with fans the Food Network & Cooking Channel New York City Wine & Food Festival presented by Coca-Cola - Rooftop Iron Chef Showdown: Battle Autumn Bounty hosted by Alton Brown at Pier 92 on October 14, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for NYCWFF)

The study involved recruiting 225 students from two Indian university management schools, categorizing them into the borderline (43 students), acute (72), and chronic (33) selfitis groups based on the above criteria. In case, you can do math you will notice 72 students did not meet the criteria of any of these 3 categories. The researchers then conducted focus group interviews to ask the students questions such as "What compels you to take selfies?", "Do you feel addicted to taking selfies?", and "Do you think that someone can become addicted to taking selfies?" The answers to these questions helped the researchers devise the SBS, which clumps the factors driving selfie taking into the 6 categories shown in the first column of the table below:

Factors Driving Selfie Taking

Feelings When Taking Selfies

Environment enhancement

Taking selfies gives me a good feeling to better enjoy my environment

I am able to express myself more in my environment through selfies

Taking selfies provides better memories about the occasion and the experience

I post frequent selfies to get more ‘likes’ and comments on social media

I use photo editing tools to enhance my selfie to look better than others

Attention seeking

I gain enormous attention by sharing my selfies on social media

I feel more popular when I post my selfies on social media

By posting selfies, I expect my friends to appraise me

Mood modification

I am able to reduce my stress level by taking selfies

Taking more selfies improves my mood and makes me feel happy

Taking selfies instantly modifies my mood

Self-confidence

I feel confident when I take a selfie

I become more positive about myself when I take selfies

I take more selfies and look at them privately to increase my confidence

Subjective conformity

I gain more acceptance among my peer group when I take selfie and share it on social media

I become a strong member of my peer group through posting selfies

When I don’t take selfies, I feel detached from my peer group

A person who takes the SBS questionnaire is supposed to read the statements in the second column of the table above and then rate how well each statement matches his or her own feelings. These answers subsequently help determine how much each of the factors is driving selfie-taking and categorize the person as not having selfitis or having borderline, acute, or chronic selfitis. The SBS factors and questions do lend some insight into why you or others may be taking lots of selfies.

But how useful is it to have the term "selfitis" and a specific SBS questionnaire? Like many selfies, unclear. Nearly any activity can progress to excessive or obsessive levels, and you can then add an -itis to it to coin new terminology such as gossipitis, check-your-email-itis, make a Vlog-itis, cow-tip-itis, step-on-an-invisible-box-itis, toilet-text-itis, or even create-a-new-terminology-and-behavioral-scale-itis. How is taking too many selfies that different from going overboard on any other popular fad? The trouble with coming up with specific terms for every possible fad or phenomena is that like a selfie on Snapchat, fads will come and go, leaving an excess of terminology and instruments. Imagine what would have happened if there had been a Polaroid camera-itis or a VCR-itis.

According to the Mashable article, in 2013, Kylie Jenner posted more selfies on Instagram than any other celebrity. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

There are certainly worse things than taking too many selfies as long as they are safe selfies. As with many activities, selfie-taking can range from healthy to neutral to unhealthy. When done appropriately, selfie-taking can be a way of expressing yourself, communicating with others, and interacting with the environment. It can also be part of your career if you are Miley Cyrus, a Kardashian, or Kylie Jenner. If it safely gets you out of your chair, outside, and moving, then great. On the other hand, if taking a selfie means that you could plunge 73 stories to your death, as I described previously for Forbes, it's probably not worth it.

Ultimately, an activity becomes a problem only if it begins hurting you or others or covering up other more serious problems. If you want to know if your selfie-taking is a problem, ask why are you taking the selfies and what you are risking in the process. An arbitrary threshold of number of selfies won't be able to separate healthy from unhealthy behavior. Three or even six selfies a day wouldn't be so bad if done appropriately without interfering with your relationships, school, work, or other necessary life activities. By contrast, insisting on taking a single selfie a day with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could be a problem, especially if you do not know him.